Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-03-03
A REVOLUTIONARY RELIC.
Building in Which the First Senate of New
York State Met.

A Building in Which the First Senate of New
York State Met.
Early in the present week Senator Con-
nelly will introduce bill for the purchase
of the old senate house in this place,
writes a Kingston. n. Y, correspondent
of The NelO YoTA; Times. The object is to
have the state own and control the build
ing as kind of museum of relics of the
Revolutionary war. The building was
erected in 1876 by Col. Vessel Ten Brock.
1t is situated on Upper Clinton avenue.
The front walls are of stone, two feet
thick, and the back is constructed of brick
i'm ported from Holland. The oaken
beams of the interior appear to be good
for many years to come. Portions of the
woodwork were destroyed by fire when
the British were in the town IN 1777.
These, however, were so carefully replac-
ed (by Gen. Armstrong, afterward secre-
tary of war under President Washington,
that the loss of the original IS scarcely
noticed. Three years ago the house was
advertised for sale by Frederick E. West
brook, but no buyers appeared. In April
1885, the house was finally sold at mort
gage sale, the purchrser being Mitchell
Valentine, of New York city. The first
senate of the state of New York met in
session several months until the arrival Of
the British army. Upon the walls of the
house q tablet attests the fact that the
senate once celled this queer old building
it's home. To-day it carries these in
scriptions.
SENATE HOUSE OF STATE OF n. Y, 1777.
Col. Vessel Ten Brock, born at West
phalia, 1886, erected this stone house
about 1876, wherein the senate of the
State of New York, was held in
the year of the adoption of its first Con
stitution, 1777. Continued here until the
burning of Kingston, October 18th, 1777.
sHere," to use the words of Gen. George
II. Sharp, the historian of Kingston, "the
first chief justice of the state John Jay,
charged the grand jury soon after the
Revolution. Here presided Judge Brock
hoist Livingston, Judge Kent, Judge
Spencer, Judge Van Ness. Judge Smith
Thompson, afterward chief justice Of the
state, secretary of the treasury, and judge
of the supreme court of the United
States. He was Kent's successor and
Nelson's predecessor. Here, also. were
heard those mingled tones of Dutch and
English, the utterarces of Judge Yates,
afterward governor of the state, of whom
it was once apolegetically said by a by
stender that IL was easy TO understand
him when he spoke in the vernacuIar.'
The president of British troops in New
York, the nominal capital of the state,
gave migratory character to the seat of
government till after the evacuation
The first legislature met at Kingston,
but adjournment was had to an old stone
building in Poughkeepsie, now malt
house which Is soon to give way to some
thing more modern. The second legis-
lature met In Poughkeepsie, the third
returned to kingston, the fourth and
sixth again met in Poughgeepsie, the
seventh to tenth, inclusive met in the city
hall. New York, the eleventh met m
Poughkeepsie, and it was not till the
twelfth (17sS) that Albany was favored IN
the least. For ten years longer the leg
islature came together as the two houses
might agree or the government might
designate, and then G7SS) Albany was
made the permenant capital